I’m looking for a good image editor for my Mac Mini. I want photoshop but the retail cost is outrageous. I found the following site via google:
http://www.buysusa.com/html/macintosh.html
It has PS 7.0 for $99, you don’t get a manual but supposedly the software is totally legal. Does anyone have experience with this company? Are there other editor options for the Mac that I should look into?
Yeah I have Gimp and I can’t stand it. It is a good program but it sucks for pixel level editing, at least I feel it does. Thanks though.
Ah Photoshop Elements 3.0 appears to be what I need. $89.00 US
Yep, you beat me to it. Elements is aimed for us non-professionals (read: cheap). 
GIMP. Just as good as photoshop[…].
HAHAHAHAHA… ha… ha.
I wish.
It can do about as much as photoshop. That’s true. But usability-wise it really sucks. And its no issue of being used to it. Its just a matter of silly additional steps. Or just plain random behaviour. Say there is that layer and I want to blur it… easy enough, right? I mark it… choose the filter… check the preview… everything alright… I press OK… it calculates and then… no change at all. Very funny.
Something like that never happend with photoshop. And in photoshop a new layer always has the size of the image. And there is no “floating selection” crap… just a new layer (with that pasted stuff)… and you don’t have focus issues… its really (REALLY!) annoying if you have to click on the window again and again just for getting focus.
It could be a real alternative if it would be just nicer to use. But it isnt.
Photoshop elements? Na… don’t. Alpha/masking stuff is quite crippled there, which makes it somewhat useless for game graphics.
See this thread:
I’m so glad it’s not just me that suffers this :).
* blahblahblahh wants to claw my eyeballs out each time I use the GIMP for extended periods
Of course, you know waht the workaround is? “Change your window manager so that all your other apps work badly, but the GIMP works well”. Um, no :).
GIMP 2 is many many times better than GIMP 1.x - I strongly recommend using it (if you must use gimp!), but it’s still hundreds of times less usable then photoshop (which is itself famous for not being as usable as it should be!).
Gold standard is still paintshop pro. Just got hold of PSP 9 at work, and it’s frickin fantastic - really really nice.
Geez, you people want the moon on a stick… I use The Gimp and I’m very happy with it. Sure, it has its little quirks, but what software doesn’t? I personally get more frustrated with Outlook’s mind-bogglingly bad UI than with The Gimp, and my company’s paid good money for that.
Anyway, back on topic: No, BuysUSA are exceedingly dodgy, and will pocket your money faster than a chav cashing a stolen giro.
Extract from the terms of service (http://www.buysusa.com/html/tos.htm):
[quote]You understand that in order for Buysusa to make you a copy (OEM) of any software, you acknowledge that you are the legal owner of this same software, and are looking to just make a new copy (OEM) for archival (backup) purposes only. You also agree to destroy all copies of the software in the event it is ever no longer voluntarily in your possession. You understand that only the licensed owner (with a valid serial number, where applicable) of the various software found on Buysusa may use the services located here.
[/quote]
So when they say “This is a CD only sale” they literally mean it - you don’t get a licence to use the software.
Thanks for the info everyone, I downloaded the demo of PS Elements for windows and it does the things I need it to do. The alpha stuff works just fine, you just can’t edit the channels separately apparently which is not a problem for me.
Yea, I ment 2. I also tried 1.x before and also that gimp 2 hack called gimpshop. All of em were similar bad. 
Geez, you people want the moon on a stick…
Actually… I just want a programm where simple things are easy to do. Say a simple pill button as this one…
http://kaioa.com/k/new_spam.png
…shouldn’t take more than 1-2 minutes, right? But guess what… I actually ended up doing that with inkscape (a vector programm), because it was easier there than with gimp. But it still took more time then the same with photoshop.
And that “I wish” there… I really wish it would be as good as photoshop, but with its clumsy interface, which gets in the way of everything and its random behaviour… it just isn’t nearly as good.